If you’re anything like me, you love spending time with friends and family over the holidays, but you’d still rather be sipping wine quietly in a cellar. There’s something about that cool cellar air and the sweet smell of cork that’s instantly calming, even during the most stressful holiday get-togethers. Here are a few excuses…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: –Robert Mondavi Winery –Silver Oak Cellers –Chateau Pichon Lalande –Chateau Cheval Blanc A Wine Berserkers forum member once considered buying a mixed case of 1970s and 1980s California and French wine, including some Robert Mondavi, Silver Oak, and Pichon-Lalande. The only potential problem that this forum member noticed was that the…
A few years ago, we thought about moving Vinfolio’s headquarters to a new location. The area seemed spacious and perfect, except for one thing: it was located next to a brewery. Inside the building, we could smell the funky yeast wafting from the brewery’s exhaust, and we knew that if we stayed there, it would…
Earlier this year, I accidentally “decanted” a small serving of Champagne. I had poured some of it into a standard white glass, but because I was getting my house ready for dinner guests to arrive, I forgot where I set the glass down. I was eager to taste the wine, so I poured myself another…
I once visited the home of a magnificent wine taster. The 70-year-old collector had developed an incredible palate for both Burgundy and aged scotch in his lifetime, and could tell you everything about Cote de Nuits. I assumed he would have a massive wine cellar in his home, but I found that he kept all…
Just five years after George Washington became the first president of the United States, he bought six pipes (that’s 756 gallons) of Madeira wine. To say that Washington was a wine enthusiast is probably the understatement of the last two centuries. Even before the Revolutionary War, wine played an important, underlying role in the U.S.…
Whenever I decide to give someone a bottle of wine for the holidays, I always have to take a buddy with me to the wine shop. Why? Because I know I’ll walk away with one gift bottle…and about 20 other bottles for myself. My buddy is there to make sure I get only what’s on…
The 1929 DRC Les Gaudichots is the kind of wine that even the most seasoned of critics and collectors are afraid to open. One critic said that he always wanted to buy this wine, but he didn’t have the funds on his own to invest in it. He eventually split the cost with a friend;…
When collectors ask me how often they should organize their wine cellars, they give me a strange look when I respond, “Ideally, never.” The best wine cellars are those that stay organized without much additional effort on your part, and as an organization expert, I’ve helped many clients accomplish this goal. I once met a…
So now that fall is over, many serious collectors are dealing with fall allocations: stacks of wine cases filled with dozens of new bottles. We’ve already talked about how to deal with those bottles, but what can you do with the packaging they were shipped in? While they’re beautiful to look at and difficult to throw…
Two years ago, at a wine bar’s tasting event, I sat next to a man who described himself as “a proud California Cabernet nutter,” and who drank New World wines almost exclusively. We tasted an Oregon Pinot Noir that he seemed to enjoy, but when the host brought out a bottle of Bordeaux, the man…
Having gone through a devastating spring frost and continued problems with premox, Burgundy needed some good news for a change, and it looks like it got it. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Burgundy’s low grape yields might actually produce one of the most legendary wines of this decade, which is excellent news for…
